As much as music making can pick you up, sometimes you need an extra injection of joy. So meet Max – a blue dancing figure you will “vïbe” to your music on any Ableton Live track, free. And more freebies: a bathroom reverb for Ableton Live and a chipper chippy 12-bit polysynth for any DAW.
All of this is the work of Blööps, a clever developer focused mostly on Max for Live. They’ve got tons of great stuff, a lot of it with interfaces clearly inspired by the playful look of Teenage Engineering (unaffiliated). There’s bïrb, a bird-inspired effect with “flocking” delay, bird resonators and repitching, and wind-derived enveloping space. And there’s blöcks, a percussion synth/sequencer with a unique drawing interface.
They also donate 10% of their proceeds to the Yemeni humanitarian aid (though this could use some more information, please)!
Instant vïbes
Their freebies are really a charming entry point. vïbes is a simple toy – add one to an audio track, and “Max,” a company mascot of sorts, will just start dancing around. Simple, stupid, silly, it’s a fun pick-me-up if you were stuck on a track and needed some encouragement:
Sure, this got me thinking about support for tempo sync and groove settings as a M4L device … I may have a problem.
Moving on…
12-bit chip synth
This almost feels like an iOS device come to your desktop. But compüter is a “lo-fi, 12-bit goofy synthesizer” with oscillator drift, the requisite bit reduction distortion and bitcrush for even more digital grunge, and various oscillator modes. It’s fun to play with and tweak, and that funky interface could be a cure for overthinking a more conventional set of knobs and faders. Plus there’s a sultry stereo reverb, so you can drown your sounds and make any random tweak sound good. Listen:
This runs as a VST and AU plug-in, too, so you can use it in other DAWs (or if you don’t have a Max for Live / Suite license).
And it makes cute faces at you, too.
Bathrööm reverb
I’m a sucker for weird reverbs, and recording bathrooms as reverberant spaces is really a thing in real life, so this one’s terrific. It’s described as a “reverb/granular delay,” and has a totally distinctive sound, plus parameters like spread and pitch. It feels like a plate reverb, an IR impulse of a tile room, and a granular effect got mixed in a blender.
There’s also a cute, easy control surface/macro designer called contröl. It’s not as powerful as the Performance Pack from Iftah, but it could be perfect for some situations – and it’s free!
Related: My Little Fruity Loops Pony?
FL Studio users have been on this kind of dancing character functionality for some time, it seems. Take this mod from last year:
Seriously, are you a professional without this?